The Hillinger line is quite sparse, and I only have absolute
locations for my grandfather and his mother, so this will be the last of this
line. My grandfather's line only goes back two generations on either side of
his family. I have a name for his father's birthplace, but I have yet to
confirm a location for him, as I have found several towns with that name or
similar. And I have no absolute locations for either set of his grandparents,
though I know where they lived when my great-grandparents were born and grew
up. It's a relief as much as it saddens me, because researching Frankfurt and
Czudek has given me enough taste of anti-Semitism to last me the rest of my
life. Someday I hope to learn more, but right now, I think I need to step away
from this branch for a while.

Dora Hillinger, nee Kresch, was born in 1892 in a small town
called Czudec. It is now located in south east Poland, though at that time, the
area was in a country called Galicia. I do not know if she and her siblings
were the only ones in my line to be born there, but I suspect at the very least
her mother was as well. It is quite likely that one branch or the other, or
both lived there for several generations. This was true at least until the end
of World War I, when the remaining members of Dora's family left the area
forever.

Photo of Czudek by janusz_k

Czudec is a town in south-eastern Poland. At the time of my
great-grandmother Dora's birth, it was part of the Austrio-Hungarian Empire. Before
my great-grandmother's birth in 1880, the population was about 1000 people. The
Jewish population was about a third of this population, totaling around 300
people. It changed little during her time in the town, despite some attacks on
her people. The current town has a population of about 3000. I am uncertain of
the remaining Jewish population in the area, if there are any, though there is
a saying now in Poland that there are no Jews in Poland today.

As a town, Czudec dates back to the year 1185, when it was
granted to a Polish abbey. Between that time and 1326, it became a fortress
privately owned by the nobility. It was finally granted rights as a city 1461.
It was situated on a trade path leading from the east to the west. This meant
that the area was a good location for tradesmen, for their goods could be
easily sold to traders. By the beginning of the 16th century, there
were even organized guilds. The tailors and weavers' guilds were especially
prominent. Over the centuries, the town's nationality shifted from Polish to
German. From 1772 to 1918 at the end of World War I, the town was part of the
state I mentioned, Galicia, which at the time was a Germanic state. By that
time, the condition of the area had declined greatly, as the artisans of the
area could no longer compete with modern industry. In 1935, it was stripped of
a town charter, and has been a village ever since.

Jews in Czudek are first mentioned in 1499, when a Jewish
bath is mentioned in text. They next appeared in texts written in 1633 regarding Jews and the local
guilds. According to guild regulations, Jews were not allowed to sell any
products without guild permission. By the 18th century, there were
171 Jews in the town, who had their own rabbi. As with any other Jewish
community surrounded by gentiles, they were disliked and treated to strong
anti-Semitism.

Their numbers included a smith, a saddle maker, a barber,
and even a beadle. They even had a synagogue, though it had been decried by the
local vicar, who claimed that he should have been consulted on the area it was
placed before building, as it might disturb the Catholic mass. There was no Jewish
school in the area, though, and no teachers. I do not know how the children of
the area were taught, though I can imagine this was a task left to their mothers,
as I cannot imagine them attending the school for local children, which was
likely run by the Catholic church.

Dora (l) and her sister Minna (r) in 1919

In November to December of 1918, at the end of World War I,
the Polish farmers in the area attacked the Jewish population. Their homes and
lands were pillaged, and many were beaten and injured, including their Rabbi at
the time, Shmuel Hercyk. I have strong reason to believe that my
great-grandmother, Dora, and her family were affected by this attack, for the
first dates I have for her aside from her birthdate is that she moved to
Frankfurt about 1919. At the very least, I believe that it played into her
decision to leave. At most, it may have been the attack that eventually led to
her father's death, though that is only speculation on my part, as I do not
have an absolute date on his death, only guesses.

I do believe that by the Second World War, none of my
great-grandmother's family lived in the area any longer. I am quite certain
that once Dora left, she never returned to the area. She moved to Frankfurt,
where she met and married my great-grandfather, and they had six children. In
1933, they left and moved for a year to Paris before coming here to the US. She
lived here until her death in Chicago in 1969.

Dora's mother Feige in Frankfurt in the late 20s

The Jewish population of Czudek was almost completely wiped
out by the war, and most of the buildings and remains of the community were
destroyed. All of the Jewish residents were moved to the ghetto in Rzeszow, and
those who survived that move were then moved to camps, most notably Belzec.
None of them returned after the war. The cemetery where my great-great
grandfather was likely laid to rest was razed by the Nazis, and used by the
locals as agricultural land. The Synagogue was mostly destroyed as well, and
afterwards rebuilt and used as a cinema. I believe, from what I was able to
read, that the building has now been reclaimed and used as a library of Jewish books
and artifacts.

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About this blog

This blog is maintained by two sisters who have had a life long interest in geneology.Mika writes here mostly about our family (Hansen, Hillinger, Bordewick, Park, etc), and her search for more information.Shannon mostly uses this space as a place to make the many stories written about and by her husband's family (Holly, Walker, Walpole, etc) available to the rest of the family, present and future.

Our blog is named Oh Spusch! mostly because Shannon is bad at naming things. The first post I put up includes a story about the time Walker's great grandfather took his whole family out to see a play and the littlest kept saying "Oh! Spusch!" No one ever figured out what she meant by that.